1. Conveyance or transportation of people, goods, etc., by water.
1536. MS. Rawl. D. 780, fol. 74. For the water carriage of xj loodes iiij fote of the sayd tymbre.
1548–9. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 39. For the water caryage of hangynges ffrom the blake ffryers to the courte at westminster.
a. 1687. Petty, Polit. Arith., i. (1691), 10. Conveniencies for Shipping and Water-Carriage.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 4 b. The easy bringing in … of Necessaries, both by Land Carriage and Water Carriage.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xix. The Maes,… traversing the city in various directions, offered to every quarter the commercial facilities of water-carriage.
c. 1875. Flor. Nightingale, in Contemp. Rev. (1914), April, 514. Is not water-carriage generally the cheapest, the working expenses being so exceedingly small?
b. Carrying away (of sewage) by water.
1873. B. Latham, Sanitary Engin., 39. When a complete system of sewerage is intended to be carried out, and water-carriage is to be used for the removal of all the refuse and fæcal matter usually transported by sewers.
1876. Jrnl. Soc. Arts, 9 June, 728/1. Mr. Richard Monson asked … if he considered it a better plan to store sewage at every dwelling than to remove it directly by means of water-carriage. Ibid. It was impossible at the present moment to say whether the old prevailing system in this country was better or worse than the water-carriage system.
2. Means or facilities for transporting by water.
1727. Arbuthnot, Tables Anc. Coins, etc., 228. Ptolomy Philadelphus … open’d the Water-carriage from Alexandria to the Indies, by establishing Staples on the Canals of the Nile.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 25. The timber, by its remoteness from water carriage, is of small value.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xxix. 594. The great object of my journey being to secure water carriage.
1893. D. J. Rankin, Zambesi Basin, xii. 205. There is naturally nothing which tends so rapidly and effectually to develop commerce and civilisation as that offered by good water-carriage.
† b. collectively. Vessels, boats. Obs.
1727. Arbuthnot, Tables Anc. Coins, etc., 215. The most brittle Water-carriage was used among the Egyptians, who, as Strabo saith, would sail sometimes in Boats made of Earthen-ware.
3. dial. A channel for carrying off water.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 37. The manager of the mead … begins cleaning out the main drain, then the main carriage, and then proceeds to … make good all the water carriages that the cattle have trodden down.
1819. Rees, Cycl., VI. R 3, s.v. Canal, A cut or water-carriage may be taken out of the summit’s level, and carried on along the side of the hill with a proper fall.
1898. Miss Yonge, Keble’s Parishes, vi. 71. He … took his revenge by a flying leap over a broad ‘water carriage,’ leaving them to follow as they could.
